Bikes & Perogis- Krakow

Hey guys! Hope everybody had a good week. Don't worry, I didn't forget about the blog, I'm just taking my sweet time. Partly because I'm lazy, partly because I'm working on becoming a real engineer (P.Eng experience application).

So where were we? Oh yes, the morning after the train ride. We got to Krakow at around 8 AM in the morning at the train station and funnily enough, it was quite difficult to find someone who spoke english and hail a taxi. At the end, a friendly local helped us get ride to the hotel. Of course, it was too early for check-in so time for some wandering...

Old-Town Krakow is actually a UNESCO protected site. The area is beautifully preserved and includes old-town square, picturesque little houses and churches.

We climbed up the clock tower and got a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

This was one of the oldest salt mines in the world and was something that I really wanted to come to Krakow and see. As most of you know, I work in the mining industry and in particular, processing so mining and mining related topics are something near and dear to my heart. The mine has been operating continuously since the 13th century until it shut down in 2007 when tourism revenues brought in more money than table salt. Many of the miner throughout the ages left their mark on the mine and carved statues out of the rock like the one below. 

I work with a few geologists so I hope other fellow rock lovers would enjoy this photo of the rock crystals. You could actually lick the walls ( not statutes though) and I believe each visitor gets to lick/take away 3 kg of salt from the ground if they really wanted to.

The mine itself contained many chapels and places of worship and was unlike any mine I had ever heard of.

Took 3 people 67 years to carve this chapel

The chandeliers itself was made of salt too! This was truly a world class deposit. 

Exquisite

Wawel Castle 

We took a trip to the nearby Wawel Castle compound by the Vistula river. This was where for centuries, the kings of Poland lived. The grounds were very very impressive and extensive. 

An overview

The Tower

Rowan was helping me and Annie take pictures, I know he doesn't like it but he does get into it.

Gotta get the best angle

He eventually took one or two pictures of the scenery himself.

Awesome shot :D

The symbol of Krakow is the dragon so there's a statue of a dragon that breathes fire!

Roar!!!!

It was a beautiful day and we ended up renting some bikes to go along the river! So much fun ^^.

The Food

Of course Poland is famous for their perogis so we did try a lot of that in Krakow. Did you know that the usual potato/cheese stuffed perogi at home that we have are known as Russian perogis there? Also, it was nice to find different variety of stuffings, especially game in the perogis.  They were boiled, fried and usually served with sour cream.

Since we are not that far from central Europe, I was able to find pig's feet on the menu. My boss told me to try it so I reluctantly ordered a plate. The meat was actually quite tender and flavourful, it wasn't bad. I would eat it again. They sold it by the 100g, the foot below was only 39g!

Kinda felt like more than 39 g to me

Large sausages seemed quite common too. They were pretty good :)

Alright, hope you liked this entry. I really enjoyed my time in Krakow. The place and people were really nice and given a chance, I would love to go back and explore different parts of Poland. Our next stop will be in Budapest. Enjoy your weekend!

Central Europe 2015: Prague

As most of you know, I went on a spring trip in Central Europe. After finally unpacking and getting over jetlag, I thought it's time to start blogging about our trip. :)

A bit of background: originally, I had planned this as a rail only trip since this would be my last year to purchase a EuroRail pass, but after doing the math , it turned out that buying the tickets individually was even cheaper and logistically it only made sense to take the train for certain segments of the trip. We ended up going to Prague, Krakow, Budapest, and Istanbul. I know, it's not "really" Central Europe,  since we were in Poland and Turkey is barely in Europe but I'm not really sure what to call it so I'll stick with that for now. 

You can check out the map below, the blue line indicating a train trip and red line for flying:

The entire trip lasted for 17 days and I went to some of the most picturesque places in Central Europe with my best friend and my boyfriend, it was an absolutely amazing experience!

I start my trip in picturesque Prague, Czech Republic. The old town is amazingly preserved and everywhere you turn, it's a beautiful scene out of a post card.

It seems like Spring has arrived a little earlier in the Czech Republic and everywhere I turned, flowers were in bloom. 

Prague is quite the touristy little town. Everywhere you go, there are tourists and tourism activities. We decided to try out a Segway tour as a way to see the town since one side of the  Vlata river seemed quite hilly. This turned out to be a great idea since the Prague Castle was situated at the top of a large hill and the Segways were excellent at hill climbing.

All of us in our dorky Segway glory!

To be honest, this was my first time being on a Segway and I have to say I had a lot of fun. They were fast, responsive and able to handle many different terrains. In a way, I'm kind of surprised they are not more widely used given how versatile they can be. However, I would say the biggest drawback is that the user is constantly standing while operating the machine. There are a lot of people who may have difficulty with that, especially over a long period of time. But I'm glad I tried it out and I can't wait till I can do it again :D. 

The castle was really fun to explore and you get a spectacular view of old town Prague. 

They even have traditional guards who perform a changing of the guards ceremony once a day! Kind of reminds me of London all over again.

The Food

Unfortunately I didn't quite document all of my meals but I will share with you one of the more "Czech" styled meals I had. 

Overall the Czechs enjoyed their game, bread and sausages. They seemed to be influenced by the Germans so I saw many places serving sausages as well as the Hungarians since goulash soup was popular as well. 

I started my meal with a cup of coffee and it was excellent! Just really really yummy coffee that I can't find at home.

We shared a goulash soup in a bread bowl. It was quite nice but I wish there was more soup.

Annie tried their roast pig meal and it was delicious! This particular restaurant roasts their own pig daily and I was quite fond of how juicy and flavourful the meat was.

Night Time

While in Prague, we saw one opera performance ( Aida) at the National Opera House and one ballet performance (Krabat) . I have to say, I really enjoyed the ballet and I would love to go back. As for the opera, it was my first time watching opera, and I did not enjoy it as much. Thankfully there were subtitles during the performance to let you know what's going on, overall the experience was not as simulating. Each of the places were quite unique and it was the place where locals came to see and be seen, especially the opera house. Annie and I sat in the dress circle at the opera house and most of the people around us were extremely well dressed. All of the men were in suits while women wore expensive evening gowns. 

Overall, I would say one can really get a sense of how grand everything used to be when you visit the insides of these historic buildings. It's a nice glimpse into the past. 

Extras:

We had a layover in Zurich on the way to Prague. Annie and I found giant Lindt chocolate bars!

I spent a lot of time playing around with night photography and light streaks.

Pretty~~~

I took a picture of our cramped sleeping quarters on the train to Krakow. It fits 3 people (plus luggage) and there was a sink for washing your face!

You can barely stand 3 people in the space!

Have a good night everyone! See you in Poland!

Hello Spring!

Spring is finally here in the city! The snow 's been gone for a few weeks and the trees are starting to bud. It's one of my favourite time of the year, walking around outside with a light breeze in the air. For the past few weeks, I've been trying different things so I just wanted to share them with you here.

PaintNite

So me and my friend bought a Groupon for Paintnite in 2014 and we never got around to using it. Well finally the Groupon was about to expire so we decided to try it out this weekend. It was my 1st time doing this and really, painting for the first time in about a decade. 

All ready with our blank canvas

It started off simple enough, paint the 1st half yellow and the second half  a teal colour. Easy peasy right?

Well it turns out that since we chose an abstract painting, the brushwork to make the swirls were really really hard! I spent most of my night trying to fix my mistakes and make it look more "abstract". Half way through the night, we realized that as two people with type-A personalities, we should really not be painting any abstract art.  Here's my finished product.

Tada!

I still really like how it turned out and I'm definitely going to find a spot to hang it in my apartment.

New Bike

I had been thinking of getting a new bike for ages and finally picked up one last month at the Toronto Bike show! I got my new bike from Gallant Bicycles, a Toronto shop that does costume paint jobs on bikes. I had originally wanted to get a city cruiser of some kind but after trying it out at the show, none of them really did anything for me. I've been riding my new ride around town for the last few weeks and I really love it! It's really practical, handles well and best of it, it's super cute!

The Next Adventure

So now that Spring is here, I'm itching to go travel to the next destination. The next trip will be an Eastern European city tour. I'm pretty excited about it since this will be my first time taking an overnight train. The trip is coming up soon, so I'm busy getting everything ready. Fun fact- none of these cities use the Euro! Look forward to my trip updates!

Did you have any special plans for Spring? Have a great week everyone!

Adventures in the Azores-Part III - Hot Springs and the Ocean

Hey guys! This is part III of my time in the Azores, you can check out part I and part II.

I just want to polish off the 3 part series before 2014 is over. The rest of the year looks like it'll be very busy with lots of friends coming to town so I probably won't get to do as much blogging.

The final stop in our Azores trip was to a spa by the ocean, in a place called Ferreira.  I haven't been to many spas in my life but I thought this one was special since it was right by the ocean and the pools in the spa use the natural hot spring water. The best part is that there's a hot spring right at the beach, that's accessible to anyone. The water gets really hot to ~50 C , but there's also the cold atlantic water coming in to the area. The locals really enjoy the contrast between the hot and cold and many will come in the summer.

The little red roof is where the spa is located

The waves were high and dangerous that day. The water levels were very high so it was not suitable for swimming. And the reality was, with the water so high up, it's very difficult to feel the hot spring waters contrasted with the cold ocean waves since the pool is filled with cold water.

I ended up not going into the natural pool and just got a massage at the spa instead. In general, the spa was located in a beautiful area and it was fantastic to use their facilities that had the same mineralized waters that was pumped from underground.  Here's a few shots of the views at the spa.

This ends the 3 part series on the Azores. I also did a highlight reel if you are interested.

Have a good weekend!

Memories of the Azores

This is a highlight reel of my time in the Azores, you can check out parts I-III here 

I was originally going to include this section in Part III but I felt like I needed to do it justice and not clutter up the Part III post. 

I had an amazing time during my trip to the Azores and to be honest, I didn't expect myself to like this place so much. It was a beautiful and scenic place with very warm and friendly locals and I can't wait to go back and explore the other islands and drink more milk!

Things I will miss from the Azores

1) Sunrises

I've never been an early riser but because the sun rose around 8 AM everyday, I did get to catch many beautiful sunrises without having to be up too early.

2) The Food

I think I've talked at length about how much I love their dairy. I also loved a lot of the other foods found on the island, like the fresh fish, and the salty chorizo! I liked the chorizo so much that I bought some at Loblaws to make at home.

flaming chorizo

There's a lot of ice cream cones/ popsicles that are not available in North America as well, this one had a chocolate shell with nuts and a chocolate center.

3) The Landscape

There were rolling hills and cliffs with steep drops everywhere. I loved the variation in the landscape. And of course, the hot spring and spa was amazing!

Trying not to fall off the edge

4) The Plants

There were many hydrangeas and other flowers on the island while I was there. I kind of wish I can go back in the summer time just to see everything blooming.

The endemic moss that's in a heart shape S2

5) The Pineapples!

There were pineapples everywhere that were super fresh! I wish it was like that in North America. But, its probably a good thing since their juice is basically a meat tenderizer and my tongue got really numb from eating all that pineapple on the trip.

I hope you've enjoyed my series on the Azores, I know I did :)

Have a good weekend!